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Well, maybe lots of stuff, who knows? But one thing I personally can confirm is they both have an acute appreciation of Dean Norris.

Norris plays James ‘Big Jim’ Rennie in Under the Dome, which returns for its second season, Monday, June 30 on CBS and Global. King, of course, wrote the book upon which Under the Dome is based, and Gilligan is the creator of Breaking Bad, in which Norris played doomed cop and Walter White nemesis/brother-in-law Hank Schrader.

I remember asking Gilligan last year which character in Breaking Bad changed the most over the course of the series from his original conception. Gilligan said that Hank emerged from being merely a device to being a key component, largely because of the skill and depth of the man they cast in the role, Norris.

Might the same thing be happening with Under the Dome? There appear to be way more sides and nuances to the Big Jim character in the TV show than there were in the book.

“I didn't read the book, I was going to, but I decided not to. But I think it's incumbent upon any actor to try to find the humanity in the person you're playing, no matter who it is. So maybe the writers decided to play with that a little bit. There's certainly a lot more of it this season.

"The first episode of the new season is written by Stephen King, and it might be my favourite. We've talked about, 'Can this character be redeemed?' Things push Big Jim to kind of say, 'Hey, wait a minute.' It's almost like a religious moment. He has to re-evaluate. And that sets Big Jim on an interesting arc for the season.”

Under The Dome tells the story of the people of Chester's Mill, who find themselves trapped inside a mysterious transparent dome of unknown origin. As a town alderman and take-charge guy, Big Jim has gone to extremes to maintain what he considers to be “order,” and to cover his own butt.

Referring to Under the Dome as “the power hour” makes it sound like some sort of music countdown on oldies radio. But Big Jim takes the phrase literally. He has a messiah complex, for sure. Chester's Mill is a mere anthill, but Big Jim wants to be king of that anthill.

“You think about politicians, and despite most of them being millionaires, let alone multimillionaires, they will spend a whole lot of their own money, they'll subject themselves to all kinds of abuse and privacy invasion, and at the end of the day, what do they get?” Norris said. “Bragging rights, I guess. But what they really get is power.

"People will do anything to get just a little bit of power. And those are the good ones, or semi-good ones. They already could buy anything they wanted. But power is different. And I think that makes our show a metaphor for a lot of things.

“Like a lot of people, Big Jim concocts a psychological shield as to why he's doing what he does, and he really believes it. I don't think he's saying it to fool anyone, I think he believes it. That's how I've played it, anyway. But that's part of his power complex. He's putting upon himself the power to be the person who saves the world, which in this case means saving the anthill of this little town.”

If anyone's up to the job, it's Dean Norris. Hey, he has big fans in Stephen King and Vince Gilligan. Pretty good guys to have under your personal dome, huh?